The recent scandal involving US hip-hop artist Akon brutally gyrating on a 15-year-old Trinidadian girl at the island's popular Zen nightclub has taken both the mainstream media and
In a bid to stem the already extensive and continuous coverage of the event, the teenager’s family is seeking to legally bar the media from further publishing photos and the girl’s name, as she is a minor. Club Zen has apologized for the incident. But apologies have not appeased some bloggers, who remain outraged about the whole episode.
The Modest Goddess has seen the video and is
“not sure what’s more disturbing - the girl being flung and dragged around the stage, legs twisted into varying positions to facilitate his act until he abandons her crumpled on the floor? Or the cheering of the crowd, the roaring approval of the crowd, the screaming, clapping, appreciative crowd. The same crowd that now stands in judgement of what happened.”
She is also concerned about the fact that
“on the various blogs on which it appears, comments are being left that use the most derogatory of insults. The girl…has been universally labeled a ho. It reminds me of the age old excuses given for rape - she wanted it, she asked for it, she enjoyed it, she was dressed like a ho, hell, she is a ho.”
Disparaging comments were also the reason that Caribbean Public Relations decided to back away from the issue:
“I've deleted the post about the indecent dance between Akon and the 15-year-old girl, which has garnered this site at least 4,840 hits in just one week. Now one would think that I'd be ecstatic over this jump in readership. I'm not.”
In response to the Trinidad Express interview with the girl's father, The Manicou Report voiced his opinion on the behaviour of both parties:
“I don't know what you'd call that barely-there red top, matching heels, low-rider jeans and lower back tattoo, but “innocent” isn't the word that comes to mind. She's wearing a crucifix though, so I guess it's all OK. Secondly, Akon. There's not much I can say for Akon except that I'm more than just a little disgusted. I don't think I have ever seen anything more dehumanizing being passed off as entertainment. To see a big strong man like Akon treat another woman like a hump toy without any regards to her personal safety is appalling to me.”
By contrast, Colonise This! says:
“What is at issue here for me is not what Danah was wearing or the fact that she was underage, nor is it the practice of performers inviting members of the audience up on the stage to “wine” with them. What is at issue is what this affair represents: the consistent and constant erosion of social, moral, intellectual boundaries, that moves people of African ancestry closer and closer to the animal kingdom and makes us less and less recognisable as sentient and thinking beings.”
Afrobella is also disturbed by the racial implications:
“So then this Akon thing happens, and I can’t look away from the comments pages. And I find the same ignorant beliefs being spouted again and again. ‘This is a part of Caribbean culture, get over it.' ‘That’s how they dance in Trini.' ‘Those Caribbean girls get down like that.' And all of the old school disses delivered to dark skinned people that you might expect…Yes, scandalous dancing is celebrated throughout the Caribbean, all you need to do is do a You Tube search for ‘dutty wine' or ‘dancehall queen' to find an array of NSFW videos of women getting down on all fours to degrade themselves. But Akon took it to a whole ‘nother level.”
The incident has sparked considerable discussion over what has become a basic tenet of Caribbean culture - wining. Barbadian blogger Eemanee at What crazy looks like agrees that Akon…
“was perhaps a bit over-zealous and dishonest (there being no trip to Africa) but just how does his performance differ from that of many of our Caribbean performers or your average drunken revellers at Crop Over or Carnival; or that of the dancers in the latest passa passa video? If Akon has disrespected us it means we have been disrespecting ourselves for quite a long time.”
But Caymanian Mad Bull saw nothing out of the ordinary in Akon's behaviour, making the point that many of the region's soca stars behave in a similar fashion onstage. Gallimaufry disagrees:
“I’ve been to plenty (well, enough) fetes and soca/reggae shows and I’ve seen revellers at Kadooment and thing, so believe me, I’ve seen raunchy, but that isn’t just raunchy, that is brutal and scary.”
Posting from Trinidad, Dre at Allyuh.com was just as appalled at what he calls “Akon's Party Politics, producing a comprehensive roundup of politicians' (including the country's Prime Minister) comments on the issue:
“Patrick Manning is now looking into the issue, pointing fingers in Zen’s direction and asking for the nation to forgive Danah:
‘I have taken very careful notice of this matter and the owner of Zen owes it to the public to take responsibility. I will be interfacing with Zen because that kind of thing should never be allowed to happen in this country.
‘The owner (of Club Zen) should not be allowed to have such a kind of scene, (and) the public should forgive Danah.'”
Meanwhile, Trinidad Carnival Diary reports that Club Zen has been shut down indefinitely on the heels of another unsavoury incident involving a music star - but
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog reports that the closure was short-lived, perhaps making Genie X's comment about Akon all the more relevant:
“But what of Akon? He was deceitful, egotistical, misogynistic, disrespectful and contemptuous. What price has he paid for his behaviour? What have been the repercussions of acting like an animal? Well, the only one I have seen so far, is that his record label has rallied to protect its ‘investment', by attempting to hide the evidence of his despicable acts by having it removed from You Tube. Any and every behaviour by black people against black people is okey-dokey with them as long as the music keeps selling. Beyond this one disheartening act, there is the loud and eloquent sound of silence.”
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trinis are hypocrites. this preacher man is a failure if his daughter is at this club at this hour…he is the one who should look in the mirror…akon and the club owners are in the business of entertainment…most of which is sexual…is this a surprise to anyone?
and why not ban carnival if you guys are so worked up about dry humping…have you seen a carnival float recently?
come on people quit being hypocrital
akon should be EXTREMELY ashamed of himself!!!that just shows how PEOPLE like him can exploit little girls who trust him to be in his videos!he should be arrested and put on trial for the indecent performance put on in this little video of his.no matter if he had the consent of this little girl.THIS IS AMERICA!WED DO NOT TREAT PEOPLE THIS WAY!
You people are seriously missing certain points. This whole event could have been prevented by
1. Not allowing your underage daughter to dress as she does.
2. Not allow your underage daughter to out at late hours.
3. Not allowing underage CHILDREN into ADULT EVENTS (this club is a 18 and over club)!
4. If you do searches online, you will see that this young girl has been dressing the way she does since she was at least 12…and has a tattoo at the age of 15.
What people don’t understand is that this young girl walked into an adult show and decided that she wanted to represent herself as an adult. Akon and his staff don’t regulate who comes through the door and comes to the event that people are spending there money to see. It is no secret that Akon has a part of his show where he is wining and grinding a female, it’s all over youtube with celebrities and others having fun (Tara Reid). It is also no secret that growing up in on a small caribbean island, that at a young age you will make friends with certain people who are going to do you favors by letting you into overage clubs as long as you don’t get into trouble. I grew up in Hawaii and I could get into certain clubs at a young age and drink, and that’s a state…imagine a Caribbean Island.
Do your research and see that this young girl has been acting out at a young age, and lets not judge Akon, but the parents of this girl for her actions. She may be a child and I agree that it shouldn’t have happened to her, but Akon was not performing at a all ages club or event. This was for adults.
Jroc
I SEE ABUSE 24/7 IN MY JOB AN DANAH IS A WALKING TESTIMENT OF THAT I DONT CARE ABOUT AKON I AM SERIOUSLY WORRIED ABOUT THAT GIRL SOME THING IS VERY VERY WRONG I THINK THAT SHE HAS BEEN THROUGH SOME THING AWFUL.PEOPLE MIGHT DISAGREE BUT LOOKIN AT THE END OF THE CLIP WHEN HE LEAVES HER ON THE FLOOR IT HIT ME LIKE A TON OF BRICKS. THAT IS NOT NORMAL BEHAVIOUR UNLESS YOU ARE DRUNK OR ACTING OUT WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO YOU SHE HAD A PLASTIC SMILE ON HER FACE ALL THE TIME THIS WAS HAPPENING THERE IS NOTHING IN HER FACE AN THAT SCARES THE HELL OUT OF ME.I HOPE WE WILL COLLECTIVELY APOLOGISE IF THAT GIRL HAS BEEN ABUSED BY SOMEONE . GO AN SEE WHAT THE NICE BOYS NA GIRLS HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT A FELLOW HUMAN BEING I AM NOT HER AN I CRIED IT WAS HORRENDOUS.STABLE PEOPLE DONT START DRINKING FROM THE AGE OF 12.SOME THING IS NOT RIGHT
this girl old man is a preacher man! lay the blame at his feet and her mother if she’s got one…when people screw up their kids and they fall through the cracks then they want other people to clean up their mess..akon is all about bumping and grinding so if you go on stage with him you’re on your own
and no word from hypocritical Trinidadians about shutting down carnival and banning floats…y’all see carnival lately?
oh you’re a set of hypocrites
First of all the young lady did not have a sign on her neck stating that she only 16. so how was he suppose to know that. To enter the club you have to be 18 year, so in his mind everyone is legal. The young lady father did not know his 16 years old girl child was not in the house, now who to blame, because you dont have control over your minor daughter. The way she sat on top of him and ride him like he was a horse. You could see this is not new to her. Any woman who get on stage with anybody and let them do that to them only have their self to blame. I never once hear her say stop. she was having to much fun. we as parent only have our self to blame, me as a mother every night check to make sure my 18 & 14 years old daughters are in the bed before i go and sleep. don’t blame Akon if that’s the case then blame her parent for not knowing where she was. I am sure when she got up on stage she never said that I am only 16yrs old. Everyone it just looking to befefit, if he was not a celebrity the media would not have air this so much.
theres two side of every story one is “akons” hiphop mentality girls dancing, sex, drugs, etc. we see rappers in MTV pouring wine on women, rappers in stripclubs, having affairs with too many women and yet there are songs that talks about “loving you forever” “your the only one” etc. MTV is not made for adults only it is made for all minor or not and they imitate it. they think its okey. whats the deal?? black people are the ones who familiarize us with negative words making it sounds “cool” or okey, its so easy to blame the parents who works hard all day, MTV should be blame for this kinds of acts, the artist also they are public figures and should act positive, and wise, the buisnessmen who profits, akons songs are not all bad, but the rap culture is into sex drugs alcohols womanizing… and then they sing one or two positive songs… too much contradiction
[...] I swear, after this I’m done with the Akon thing. It’s become a far bigger news story than I expected, and gone on for far too long. [...]
im sorry but the person who made a comment about America is inaccurate. America!!!! for heavens sake that country has no culture. you have produced artists like snoop, 50 and the whole hip-hop industry so you have no right to look down on the carribeans. i don’t even understand why akon is being criticised for doing his job. he is an entertainer and he thought the girl was legal…if the club had been more responsible then this would not be such a big issue. if women want to get down, they are not stupid, thet are aware of what they are doing. she was into it and so was he. the parents and the club should be blamed…women make it easy to be treated as sex objects, she was not raped so whoever posted that rape comment should take note of that. this should in no way deter from the fact that akon is an amazing artist, so what if he is human, get over it! if women do not want to be mistreated don’t put urself in tht situation, its as simple as that.
Akon Sorry for Trinidad Humping…
After being dropped by Verizon, Akon (Aliaune Thiam) issued a public apology for the incident at the Zen nightclub in Trinidad where he simulated sex with an underage girl:
“First, and most important to me, I want to sincerely apologize for the e…
As a caribbean national I am shocked and horryfied at akon’s behaviour and comments that have been made that insuate that all caribbean persons condone this type of outragious behaviour. First of all, while the girl should not have been in the club the management of the club had a responsibility to ensure that all patrons of the club are indeed of age. Secondly, Akon lied to the crowd, and disrespected the young lady, treating like an old rag doll. Akon’s glorified apology was only made after he lost sponsership of his tour next month and was insincere and acted as a vehicle for akon to pass the buck to the owners of the zen night club. He should be charged!
First of all i want to say is that everyone needs to stop placing all the blame on akon because this little girl who everyone seems to think is the victim is just as guility as he is. I place more of the blame on her than i do on him for the fact that she knew she was underage but still proceded on going on the stage and not even bothering to mention to him that she was not of legal age, and for her to be wining on him as well it is clearly shown that she enjoyed every moment of it, then tried to act as though she was hurt when she realized that this would be shown all over the world. Everyone needs to stop acting like they have not seen something like this happen, cuz it is shown all throughout music videos on how these women are treated but they don’t care cuz they want the fame and money. If u r to pay any attention to some of akon videos and listen to his lyrics such as pot of gold u would see that he is a very sincere person. Some of his other videos like smack that and i wanna luv u this girl can not say that she did not know wat was about to go down on that stage. One last thing everybody needs to get their story straight cuz some of ya r saying that she was 14, 15, and 16 next thing some one gone say she was 18 and then noone can say anything about akon because she is of “LEAGL” age.Every one needs to back up off of him and start directing all their so called rage towards that girl and her actions and he “CHRISTIAN PARENTS”!!!!!!!!!!
WELL HERE’S THE DEAL, THERE ARE TWO VIDEO’S IN CIRCULATION.
ONE OF AKON’S DANCE AND THERE IS ANOTHER VIDEO.
the second video is of Danah actually taking part in the dancing competition, the guy took it on a mobile phone , and you can see he was trying to tape all the contestants but keeps on straying back to danah simply because, IF YOU SEE HOW THE GIRL WAS WINING AND BEHAVING, and the funny thing is, this was taped by somebody who didnt even know who the winner would be, or even who the girl was, it was just a taping of the xompetition, but all the rest of the OLDER AND MORE MATURE GIRLS wining but when you DANAH on stage you had to ask yourself, what the hell. this girls was shaking and humping the ground and all sorts of things.
when i saw it i thought automatically NO WONDER THIS GIRL WON, cus my god if i didnt already know she was 15 cus it came out AFTER that she was 15, i would have said the girl had years of experience in doin the damn thang.
thats all i gotta say, but remember the tape was made without knowing what would have happened the day after the concert, and lemme repeat, the camera man just kept on coming back to her
I can’t believe some of the comments I am reading. I don’t think that judgment should be passed until all the information is clear. I am a Trini girl and I must say that yes, we do dance and wine but not like what Akon did to Dana. Firstly, Dana was foolish enough to lie to her father, telling him that she was going out with her friends for ice-cream (the father being more stupid to believe her). She should have known that her picture would have been in the newspapers and all over the internet. She should have known that she was not supposed to be in a club with grown-ups. However Akon’s behavior cannot be pardoned. He literally treated her like a mop. Being ignorant of her age is definitely not an acceptable excuse to treat a human being like that. I do not appreciate comments such as ‘it is her fault’ or ‘those trini girls real wild’. She was a victim; Akon was also a victim. About the speculation surrounding her age, she was 14 at the time of the incident but recently turned 15. In the Caribbean you can’t quite tell a person’s age just by appearance. In all both Akon and Dana are to blame for the incident, for they should have known better.
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Akon is not to blame.
The club was exclusively for people over the age of 18. Akon was under the assumption that this stage dancer was over the age of 18 as the club rules explictly stated. It is dangerous for a minor to sneak out of the house, wear sexually provocative clothes, insinuated herself into an adult club, and dance on stage with a notorious rapper. If any party needs to be blamed, it is the girl and her family. Sure, the girl was a minor, but Akon was in an 18 year old and older club. He was under the assumption that the girl was over 18. I agree that Akon did handle the girl roughly; however, his act was never intented to be performed on a minor because it was quite rough. This is why there is an age limit in clubs. If a minister’s daughter decides to violate all these rules, it is her and her father’s fault.
Here is another way to look at this incident. Say a peanut-allergic boy eats a candy bar such as a chocolate bar that is known to have no peanuts in it. Say there actually was a peanut in the bar and the boy suffers an allergic reaction. Who is to blame? Not the boy: he was under the assumption that there was no peanuts in the bar. Akon’s situation is similar.
Danah is to be blamed for her actions. She immensely shamed her family and friends. Ironically her father is a Preacher. The girl appears to be shallow. I think she has’nt learned her lesson.
i am an adult and the way this young lady behavved i was very appalled. just to know that her family wants to blame everyone else for her behaaviour is wrong. i live in trinidad and at that age a normal child who has a concienc would not have placed herself in the spotlight like that. in my opinion, she doesn’t care about her family nor herself and now she’s trying her best for everyone to feel sorry for her. get a life DANAH
first of all, that girl should not have even been there, so i blame her parents. If her father was so concerned and everything, why did he not find out where she was going? or did he allow her to go to a night club being underage? she is playing this victim role because of how things turned out but we all know that is BS. i believe the trini saying is, “take front before front take you.” how can u blame akon people? some of you act like you have never danced with another person….maybe not to that extreme, but think about it,the way ppl dance now, it is only a matter of time before that is what will be called dancing. Akon is a performer so he will perform. now he saw a young goodlooking girl wearing a very sexual outfit and he brought her on the stage to enhance the performance, now is that any way for a 15 year old girl to be dressed? that is really not the main focus, but still come on. so Akon pulled her on stage, did his “dance” and then he gets in trouble. He is to blame, because even tho it was dancing/wining up/whatever ud like to call it, it was inapropriate. THE REAL CRIMINAL IN THIS WHOLE THING IS MS. DANAH, AND HER PARENTS.
I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with trini chicks. They are very manipulative women.
I really don’t understand all the hatred thrown at Akon, why does the parents have the blame and why denigrate the Caribbean culture…! HOW ON EARTH IS THAT! the child is 15 years old she has nuff sense specially becuase of her father being a religious man..!PEOPLE THESE ARE THE THINGS THAT GOES ON IN NIGHT CLUBS…!DEAL WITH IT…!people of all race and culture goes to these places and they all behave the same way, in fact do you really think that any of them remembers Morality, THAT IS NOT CHURCH…! Many young people nowadays does many things that their parents do not know of and this child looks like she has being doing this far a good wile, tell me what jury is going to condemn Akon after seeing these photos..? and as for him, all the heat that he is receiving right now he deserves, i like his music but i hope with this he learns that being an artist does not mean that he has a legal license to behave out of control and without reasoning have it been a woman of legal age or not makes no difference.
Nobody wants to pay money to go see something that does not reflect any artistic talent….IT’S TIME ALL OF THESE SO CALL ARTIST LIVE UP TO THEIR NAMES…….!
I think that everybody should mind their own business and leave the blasted girl alone. so what she went a party and yea she over enjoyed herself but people getting on like they never do nutting wrong just because what she did came out in the light that dont mean that what we do is any less wrong i mean to say come on i have seen younger girls get on worse than that but oh because it was with a popular artist.
MIND ALL YUH OWN BUSINESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well listen i agree .. if you are 18 and over you expect more than just a dance or two at a club with a famous person attending it ..You should blame the 14 year old who decided she wanted to be older then what she was.. When i waas 14 i was in bed the time the clubs opened… there were no tattoos . or dressing like a straight ho,… I would have had my ass handed to me .. Im not saying it right that akon does sexualy excplicit things on stage with girls but sex sells and hes a millionare … Her father should have known where she was especially if hes a man of god.. Wow … its so funny how parents blame everyone else for there own stupidity … parents kids all over are doing what this girl did time to pay more attention….
well why is every 1 blaming ako when hes not to blame the way i see it is that girl shouldnt of been in the club the first place as she only 14 teen and every had to be 21 or over so basicly who the 1 to blame …….. tthe girl for lien about her age in the first place …… so lets all forgive akon and get on with it as he brough a great song out and he have said sorry enough xxxmwahxxx p.s akon is mint looking a nd a mint singer LOL>>
I think Akon should be called out on what he did. he should be criticized. He was wrong and he objectified the girl. But she was too young to be there even though the whole incident would have been better off not happening. I do not know the girl to judge her personality. I am not trying to. But that night she was acting grown. She did not deserve what she got but it would have behooved her to use better judgment just like Akon! Both should take this as a learning lesson.
I would like to say that black women in particular and women in general do get objectified too much though.Which is why I am not one to assume that every women that gets beaten, raped, objectified deserved it or had it coming although I do not believe all women that report rape are always innocent no more than the perpetrators . With that said, I do not agree with the comment that women ask for rape by dressing provocatively. That is like saying a man’s car should have gotten jacked because he left the car door unlocked in the parking lot .
[...] Geschichten gehörte 2007 ein provokant tanzender amerikanischer Hip Hop Künstler in Trinidad, ein polygamer Heiliger in Indonesien, sexueller Ausdruck in Hong Kong und vor kurzem ein untreuer [...]
i think akon is an animal, wat r u women dissing the chick thinkin,i think u should be ashamed of ur self . i hope u fall into d same situation.did u even watch d movie. i just shows how u women r regarded. r u people sick.even not that am now a born agsin christian i wud av dealt with d animal myself .shame on everybody that thinks it s d girls fault,there wasnt even time to scream he was like a demon.am an african and am ashamed of akon.he is an idiot who disregards women.i hope d same happens to his daughters.
[...] 2007 беа движењата на еден американски хип-хоп уметник во Тринидад, полигамниот свештеник од Индонезија, сексуалното [...]
[...] Akon has done it again - created controversy in the Caribbean. This time, Guyana is his territory of choice and bloggers [...]
The response to this incident is quite amazing. Many of the responses that argue Akon is innocent seem very similar to 1950’s justifications of rape.
It seems that many responders hold a belief that Akon has no responsibility to control his actions. Why is it ‘ok’ for Akon to have done what he did because she was wearing a skimpy outfit or that she had gained entry to a club underage? Whilst it is true that a woman putting herself in the wrong place at the wrong time can lead to bad situations, such a defence for sexual assault is ludicrous. Comparable to a mugger arguing that their victim walked down a dark alley, or a burgular claiming the house owner chose not to install a security alarm.
As a celebrity, Akon is in a position of power. Someone with his fame can easily have influence over people. How can a 14 year old - young and immature - be blamed for the actions of of a celebrity who is aged between 25 and 35 (though keeps his exact age secret)?
That peer pressue, the power of celebrity and a huge crowd of people coerce a girl into this position speaks less about her character, but far more about those who are prepared to exploit that power to take advantage of others; in this case a young girl.
As a person who has served time for sexual harrassment and rape, I feel that this - like all sex crimes - are the fault of women. I mean, if they didn’t leave the house and be near sex offenders then there would be far fewer sex crimes. Women should be banned from leaving the kitchen without chastity belts and full length clothing. This would mean they would not be tempting men. Why should men have to control their urges when this is clearly unnatural?
Oh, but this would ruin pop culture and most civilised culture. Perhaps to cure our insatiable ‘Madonna-whore’ complex women should be packaged at birth into different categories then sold on the basis of looks to the highest bidder.
Although I deeply envy Akon for being able to do that to a woman and get cheered - that’s how i tend to get arrested *lol* - if someone tried to do that to my mother/sister/daughter I would definitly attempt to murder the offender. But of course that would be different, as the women Akon and I do it to are not mothers, sisters, or daughters they are just hoes. And hoes aren’t born like other people, they only come out at night and were brought by stalks. Everybody knows that right?
I’ve tried to be consistent and non hypocritical, but essentially my argument is that it’s the girls fault for trying to be cool rather then Akon’s fault for being a sexual predator. My reasoning for this is that she is a girl and thus a ho, and he is a man (and famous) and thus should not have to moderate his behaviour to remain in the bounds of the law or social decency. (With the exception of that being against women who fall in the ‘Madonna’ side of the dichotomy)